Who knows how Italian sporting history might have changed if Jannik Sinner had chosen ski racing over tennis, if Gianmarco Tamberi had opted for basketball instead of the high jump, or if at 15 years old Bruno Conti – then a promising baseball player – had accepted a scholarship from Santa Monica and moved to the United States to pursue the American dream.
We’ll never know, though perhaps that’s for the best.“In the summer I played baseball, in the winter football. I started with the Black Angels,” Conti told Vivo Azzurro TV in an interview with Donatella Scarnati. “I was a pitcher.” The decision that would shape his life – and perhaps Italian football – was made by his father: "Once, this American team, Santa Monica, came on tour to Nettuno
